THE CUCKOO'S NEST FOLK CLUB

(a non-profit collective promoting traditional & roots folk music in London since 1973)

2025-2026 CONCERT SCHEDULE

Please Note: Chaucer’s is open for Cuckoo’s Nest concerts

but the Marienbad remains closed until further notice.

OUR NEXT CONCERT

LANGILLE & SIMS

“Blue Valentines #7 – The Seven Year Itch”

Saturday, February 7, 2026 – 7:30 pm

(Doors at 7:00 pm)

Chaucer’s Pub, 122 Carling Street, London

Advance tickets - $25

Also available at Grooves (Wortley), Long & McQuade North (Fanshawe Park Rd W).

(Please note: All sales are final)

Paul Langille & Paul Sims present Blue Valentines #7. This follows last year's sell out of the continuing series of "Blue Valentines" concerts. There will be more songs about love and its trials and tribulations along with Paul's usual self-deprecating humour. “It’s not a schmaltzy, sucky, syrupy Valentine’s Day,” said Langille. “It’s for all the people who’ve been around the block once or twice. We’re not taking the romance out of it, romantic songs are speaking from the heart, but the heart gets a little side-tracked. The poetic, romantic is not reality. What you read in a card or a song isn’t really true — the ‘I can’t live without you.’ Well, you can. I think there’s some humour to be found in it. There’s a demographic of people who feel Valentine’s is a tad overdone.” The playlist includes Langille’s own compositions and carefully selected covers. He expects plenty of audience interaction as people join in on the chorus of their favourite tunes. “They are about love, but not all saccharin,” Langille said. “They’re not all hurtin’ songs. It’s all done tongue-in-cheek so it’s not a sad night.” Also, Paul Sims gets his chance to sing a few songs as part of the show.

For Information call 519-319-5847 or e-mail folk@iandavies.com

Please Note: Chaucer’s is open for Cuckoo’s Nest concerts

but the Marienbad remains closed until further notice.

NEW CUMBERLAND

Sunday, February 22, 2026 – 7:30 pm

(Doors at 7:00 pm)

Chaucer’s Pub, 122 Carling Street, London

Advance tickets - $25

Also available at Grooves (Wortley), Long & McQuade North (Fanshawe Park Rd W).

(Please note: All sales are final)

We welcome back New Cumberland for their annual concert at the Cuckoo's Nest. Featuring inventive solo work, driving rhythms and three-part vocal harmonies, New Cumberland’s musical integrity and joy in playing together resonates in every performance. The band is: Tom Burns, vocals & guitar; Blair Heddle, vocals, mandolin, dobro; Paul Hurdle, vocals & banjo; Tom Rutledge, string bass; Darrin Schott, fiddle & mandolin. The resumes for the various individuals in New Cumberland include bluegrass stints with the Dixie Flyers, Rural Retreat and Cumberland Wail – as well as wide ranging experiences outside bluegrass in rock and folk music. Proficient in the straight-ahead driving bluegrass of Bill Monroe and Jimmy Martin, New Cumberland also stretches the genre in directions taken by The Seldom Scene, John Hartford and Jerry Garcia’s Old and in the Way. Songs from non- bluegrass artists such as the Grateful Dead, Neil Young, The Beatles, The Stones and Willie P. Bennett are also liable to appear on a New Cumberland set list.

For Information call 519-319-5847 or e-mail folk@iandavies.com

Please Note: Chaucer’s is open for Cuckoo’s Nest concerts

but the Marienbad remains closed until further notice.

PORTAGE – “Canadian Fiddle Show”

Sunday, March 1, 2026 – 7:30 pm

(Doors at 7:00 pm)

Chaucer’s Pub, 122 Carling Street, London

Advance tickets - $25

Also available at Grooves (Wortley), Long & McQuade North (Fanshawe Park Rd W).

(Please note: All sales are final)

PORTAGE is a new “super-group” of five fiddler/multi-instrumentalist/singers from across Canada bringing you old and new traditions in a collective musical adventure. High energy fiddling from many traditions meets innovative arrangements with vocals, guitar, cello, piano, accordion, feet and more. All leaders in their stylistic fields, the members of Portage are rooted in Newfoundland, Quebec, Ontario, the Prairies, Appalachia and the West Coast. Collectively, they are creating a new tradition.

The members of PORTAGE are Anne Lederman, Laura Risk, Erynn Marshall, Christina Smith and Alanna Jenish.

For Information call 519-319-5847 or e-mail folk@iandavies.com

Presented by Cuckoo’s Nest & London Irish Folk Club

STEAFAN HANNIGAN & SASKIA TOMKINS

Sunday, March 15, 2026 – 7:30 pm

(Doors at 6:30 pm)

CHANGE IN VENUE FOR THIS CONCERT

German Canadian Club, 1 Cove Road, London

Advance tickets - $25

Steáfán Hannigan & Saskia Tomkins an Ontario-based Irish Traditional duo who play traditional music from Ireland with some spice from around the world thrown in! Steáfán and Saskia have played at many European and North American festivals as a duo and with their family band, and trio Cairdeas. They have worked with many of the traditional music greats including, Martin Carthy and Dave Swarbrick, The Chieftains, Michael Flatley, and Paddy Keenan.

Steáfán & Saskia play lots of instruments, including Uilleann pipes, Whistles, Fiddle, Bodhran, Cittern, Nyckelharpa, DADGAD Guitar. Steafan Hannigan has worked in over twenty countries, recorded on over eighty albums and played live in places as diverse as Syria, Sudan, Jordan, Greece, India, and Turkey. A few years ago, Saskia Tomkins was awarded All-Britain Champion for Irish music.

For Information call 519-319-5847 or e-mail folk@iandavies.com

Presented by Cuckoo’s Nest & London Irish Folk Club

PRESSGANG MUTINY

Sunday, March 29, 2026 – 7:30 pm

(Doors at 6:30 pm)

CHANGE IN VENUE FOR THIS CONCERT

German Canadian Club, 1 Cove Road, London

Advance tickets - $25

Pressgang Mutiny are Toronto's Shantymen, a quartet of dynamic musicians and tall ship sailors, dedicated to traveling the globe to discover shanties - work songs passed down through the generations, traditionally sung by sailors and whalers, fishermen and navies, in English (mostly), but also Irish, Scots Gaelic and French. Each with a rousing chorus and beautiful harmonies. They have performed extensively at festivals and venues across Canada, the US, and Europe. They were an Official Showcase artist at the 2023 Folk Music Ontario Conference and have showcased at Folk Alliance International. Pressgang Mutiny are Richard Kott, James McKie, Tim Pyron, and Stefan Read.

With their dedication to showcasing and sharing the full breadth of one of the world's first truly multicultural music, Pressgang Mutiny have collaborated with and learned from sea shanty singers from around the globe. Their third album, Departure, was released in summer 2025. By far their most ambitious project to date, Departure explores the musical connections between shanties and other musical genres and includes sampling, instrumentation, guest musicians – and of course Pressgang Mutiny’s signature four-part harmony. Whether performing a rollicking set of shanties from around the world, leading educational workshops for new and experienced shanty audiences, or interviewing other artists as part of their ongoing podcast The Shanty Show, the lads of Pressgang Mutiny are guaranteed to entertain, educate, and delight.

For Information call 519-319-5847 or e-mail folk@iandavies.com

Please Note: Chaucer’s is open for Cuckoo’s Nest concerts

but the Marienbad remains closed until further notice.

IONA LANE

(from Scotland)

Sunday, April 12, 2026 – 7:30 pm

(Doors at 7:00 pm)

Advance tickets - $25

Swilkie, the new album from Highlands-based songwriter Iona Lane, weaves ecology, conservation, islands and folklore into poetic songs and contemplative melodies. Written during three residencies on the Isle of Eigg, Isle of Mull and Sanday in Orkney, sense of place and landscape are at the core of these songs. From basking sharks to lighthouses, lichen to vanishing islands, curlews to tree planting; the album was recorded in a boathouse on the West Coast of Scotland, and the eager listener may even hear the lapping sound of the tide murmuring through the album. Iona’s connection to places by the sea is translated through these songs with evolving vocal melodies, subtle guitar and droning shruti box.

“For Iona Lane, community and music are inextricably tied to ecology and landscape, and in Swilkie, she has created an album that celebrates that link and calls for us all to recognise its importance.” - KLOF Mag (2025). Iona plays a Taran Guitar, which she has been playing since 2020 when she was awarded the Taran Guitars Young Players Bursary.

“Iona’s expressive singing and insightful writer’s voice are quickly cementing her presence as a key figure in modern folk. She is a fine handler of traditional repertoire and an immensely skilled guitarist, and the gorgeous natural-mythological commentaries she explores in her own songs link ancient and often unheard histories with the world we find ourselves in today.” - Nancy Kerr (2021)

"Iona Lane seems to me already to have a very strong identity and focus as an emergent young artist. I’m impressed by the quality of her songs and her performance, and the way she uses her guitar as a composing tool and accompanying instrument." - Karine Polwart (2020)

For Information call 519-319-5847 or e-mail folk@iandavies.com

Please Note: Chaucer’s is open for Cuckoo’s Nest concerts

but the Marienbad remains closed until further notice.

MELISANDE

(presented by Sunfest in cooperation with Cuckoo’s Nest)

Friday, May 1, 2026 – 7:30 pm

(Doors at 7:00 pm)

Advance tickets - $25

Celebrating the tenth anniversary of her [Electrotrad] project, Mélisande revisits songs from her repertoire with a traditional Québécois sound, mostly acoustic, surrounded by four seasoned musicians - long time accomplice former Genticorum member Alexandre de Grosbois-Garand (wooden flute, bass), Jean Desrochers (acoustic guitar), Gabriel Girouard (fiddle, foot stomping) and Éric Breton (percussion). A multiple award-winning singer, Mélisande selected songs from her four previous releases to create the album Rembobine (Rewind). These songs were found by researching folklorists’ collections and archive centres, and by collecting traditional songs from elders along Quebec’s Richelieu River.

Mélisande (lead vocal, jaw harp, mandolin) cleverly enlivens the songs of ancestors in a way that invites youth culture to participate in something old made new again. Her rich musical background and her mesmerizing voice give a fresh take on these traditional songs that she adapts and presents with a modern woman’s perspective. With her infectious energy and engaging stage presence, Mélisande gets the crowd stomping, dancing and singing wherever she goes.

Mélisande's Rembobine album associated with this show has been recently nominated for 3 awards (Canadian Folk Music Awards - Solo Artist / Traditional Singer, GAMIQ - Traditional Album). The show has been presented at several folk festivals in Québec and Australia and was selected for official showcases at the Northern Turtle Island Collective @ Womex (UK), Your Roots Are Showing (Ireland) and Folk Alliance International (Montréal, QC). Also, Mélisande was featured at Sunfest '25 and did amazing performances for us.

Visit melisandemusic.com for more on the band.

For Information call 519-319-5847 or e-mail folk@iandavies.com

Please Note: Chaucer’s is open for Cuckoo’s Nest concerts

but the Marienbad remains closed until further notice.

MOONFRUITS

Sunday, May 31, 2026 – 7:30 pm

(Doors at 7:00 pm)

Advance tickets - $25

2024 Canadian Folk Music Award nominees Moonfruits (Emerging Act & Producers of the Year) craft contemporary folk that addresses our collective humanity with heart, wit, and wonder. Led by partners Alex Millaire and Kaitlin Milroy, Moonfruits pen songs in both French and English, a reflection of their bilingual lived experience in their hometown of Ottawa.

Theirs is the music of open-minded dreamers and diligent doers, confronting dehumanizing capitalism and environmental catastrophe with a rousing message of solidarity. This Stingray Rising Star, SOCAN, and Trille Or award-winning group has toured their transportive live show across Canada, the US and Europe. In 2021, the duo co-wrote, arranged, and played in Moby: A Whale of a Tale, premiered on a ship in Toronto’s harbour, recipient of four Dora awards.

Moonfruits’ lushly orchestrated sophomore album, Salt, weaves stories of family, responsibility and loss in this era of climate change and deepening inequality. It is rooted and astral, tender and powerful, foreboding and hopeful, cradling all the convictions and contradictions of its songwriters. Moon Cradle, its dreamy harp-string-and-voice laden closing track, won the Capital Music Awards for Best Production and Arrangements.

Live, expect a dynamic performance with warm, welcoming harmonies ranging from raucous to whisper quiet, innovative arrangements with bowed guitar and banjo, a little knob-tweaking and a hefty dose of family-fueled storytelling. Singing in English and French, Moonfruits love to open their audiences’ ears and hearts to sounds unfamiliar and adore a good singalong.

“the future of roots music is in good hands” — Heather Kitching, Roots Music Canada

“a tremendous live act ... they absolutely brought the house down” — Jan Hall, Folk Roots Radio

Moonfruits also love collaboration, and they perform, whenever possible, with a roving cast of players, including double bass, backing vocals, harmonium, pump organ, percussion, violin, singing saw and harp. They have a keen interest in classical-folk crossover concerts and have chamber orchestra parts at the ready.

For Information call 519-319-5847 or e-mail folk@iandavies.com

All concerts at begin at 7:30 pm and most are held at Chaucer's, 122 Carling Street, London, ON
(unless otherwise indicated)

Advance tickets can be purchased during the season at Grooves (Wortley Village),

Long & McQuade North (Fanshawe Park Rd W) and online.

For Information call 519-319-5847 or e-mail folk@iandavies.com

Special Advance “5-for-4” Multi-Ticket is available for $100 only at the Concerts
(pay for 4 concerts and get the 5^th one free)

Map to Chaucer's (click here)

We continue to be a completely volunteer run organization. We thank you for your support of live music and look forward to seeing you at the concerts. – Ian Davies, Artistic Director.

What’s happened so far in the 2025-26 Season

Sunday, Sept. 21, 2025 – Friends of Fiddler’s Green - SOLD OUT!